1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates in general to graphics software construction, and in particular to immediate drawing interfaces.
2. Description of Related Art
In graphics software construction, renderers may be device drivers for virtual graphics devices. These virtual graphics devices, and their associated renderers, will have different capabilities--some might be photo-realistic, some might be especially fast, some will support hidden surface removal using a Z-buffer. They all essentially do the same things, such as draw lines, but they do them in different ways.
Existing renderers interact with specific devices. For example, a PCL ADI renderer receives ADI signals from an application and provides PCL signals to a plotter. To draw figures on a screen, an application must provide signals to the particular renderer for that screen. This causes problems for the graphics software developer in that certain renderers may be better for some geometries, e.g., lines, while others may be better for other geometries, e.g., polygons. The developer must select one or the other.
Thus, there is a need in the art for a drawing interface that allows a graphics application to invoke multiple alternative renderers and graphics device drivers at run time.